Only two commissioners now to review Marina projects at Small Craft Harbor Commission

The County Marina del Rey Design Control Board will take public input at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, January 26th, in the Burton Chace Park on county plans to redevelop the Marina Beach — Mothers Beach — area.

A day earlier in downtown Los Angeles the County Regional Planning Commission will consider plans to demolish the existing 202-unit Del Rey Shores complex at 4201 Via Marina in the Marina and replace the demolished units with a 544-apartment complex.

In February, the Westchester/ LAX-Marina del Rey Chamber of Commerce Marina Affairs Committee will hear a report from developers on the proposed redevelopment of the Harbor House Restaurant-Edie’s Diner-county parking lot site east of Palawan Way at Admiralty Way.

Depending on whom you talk to, the project is considered part of the Mothers Beach redo.

The February chamber meeting is open to chamber members only and their guests.

So what happens to all these proposed projects?

They will work themselves through the system, which includes a public hearing before the County Marina Design Control Board.

And then they will go to the County Small Craft Harbor Commission, where — at least for the moment — they will sit, waiting for the county commission to try to gather at least three members who can come to a commission meeting and form a quorum.

At least this week, that’s not possible.

There was — and will be — no Small Craft Harbor Commission meeting in January because the commission has only two commissioners able to attend. It takes three to make a quorum.

The appointee of Supervisor Mike Antonovich — Joe Crail — who rarely attended meetings anyway, finally resigned last week, much to the relief of folks who want a quorum for the commission.

Alas, the appointee of Supervisor Gloria Molina — Carole Stevens — is quite ill and in the hospital. We all wish her a speedy recovery, but until she does recover, her seat at commission meetings also sits vacant.

Then there is the commission position appointed by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, which has been vacant so long no one can remember who was the last Yaroslavsky appointee to sit in that chair.

About every six months or so we run into Yaroslavsky and remind him that his seat on the County Small Craft Harbor Commission is vacant.

Yaroslavsky always mumbles something in reply about how hard it is to find someone who wants the job.

Antonovich at least has someone in mind for his vacancy and paperwork is going through the system on his appointee — background checks, conflict of interest investigations and such.

The appointment would then require the approval of the Board of Supervisors.

The buzz is that the fellow Antonovich wants on the commission is a boater.

A HAPPY ROOSTER — If you stick around enough and attend enough community events, you eventually find out all sorts of things you didn’t earlier know.

Sunday, we joined members of the Venice Japanese Community Center to welcome in The Year of the Dog. Their New Year’s luncheon drew a full house, including the mayor and our new councilmember.

The Japanese center members were delighted. Folks we talked to said it was the first time they could recall a visit from either a mayor or the local City Council member.

When it came time for Rosendahl to speak to the crowd, he bounded up on the stage in his usual animated manner and announced:

“There are still a few days left in The Year of the Rooster. I believe until January 29th.

“Well, I am a rooster and The Year of the Rooster has been good for me. I had my birthday in May and soon after was elected to the City Council.”

Rosendahl revealed that his nephew lives with him and is excited because he was born in The Year of the Dog, which is the coming year.

“He is excited because The Year of the Dog is a time of loyalties and strengths,” the councilman noted.

We were excited too — to learn that Rosendahl is a rooster. That certainly explains a lot.

GOT HIS TAIL FEATHERS CLIPPED — But being a rooster didn’t help Rosendahl when he tried to get his Los Angeles City Council colleagues to support him in passing a motion that a supplemental environmental impact report would be required for a “dewatering system” in the Playa Vista Phase I.

Even with lots of crowing and wing flapping, “Rooster Rosendahl” could get only two other councilmembers — Eric Garcetti and Tony Cardenas — to support his motion.

But Rosendahl isn’t giving up.

He told us at the Venice Japanese Community Center New Year’s event that he’s going to keep the issue alive.

During The Year of the Dog, can we expect Rosendahl to go sniffing around, digging up all sorts of soil samples, looking for a bone of support that might get him a second chance to get his supplemental-EIR at Playa Vista?

LOTS OF ATTENTION — When boater Craig McCabe fell off his boat after leaving the Marina last week and was fished out of the bay after more than five chilly hours in the water, national media rushed in.

It was quite a story how McCabe was out there sailing to Newport Harbor alone and without a life jacket.

Although he lives in Newport Beach, McCabe is well known in the Marina among the boating set.

We last saw him and his boat, Heather, when the 65-foot powerboat was entered in the 43rd annual Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade Saturday, December 10th.

For those of you with good memories, you’ll remember McCabe and Heather as entry #28.

McCabe used the theme, “That Special Star” to decorate his parade boat.

RETROACTIVE PERMIT — In case you missed our earlier report about the county “overlooking” getting a permit for its own project at Fiji Way and Lincoln Boulevard that involved a longtime gas station and a temporary park:

You might be driving around trying to find that gas station that the county plans to demolish as indicated in the agenda item in this week’s paper about the County Regional Planning Commission in downtown Los Angeles.

As we indicated, this is request by the county for a “retroactive” permit — all the work in the permit has already been accomplished.

In our January 5th Snoopin’ around column, we noted that county officials admitted that their failure to apply for the required permit “was just an — ah — unfortunate omission.”

POLITICS WARMING UP — It seems we have had just one election after another.

But local politicians are already getting ready for the 2006 state elections.

Candidate filing for Tuesday, June 6th, state election runs between Monday, February 13th, and Friday, March 10th.

After March 10th, we’ll know who will be on the state primary ballot.

Locally, George Nakano, who was term-limited out of his local State Assembly seat two years ago, is planning to seek the State Senate seat now held by State Senator Debra Bowen, who is term-limited out of running for another State Senate term.

Bowen will seek the Democratic nomination for secretary of state Tuesday, June 6th.

Nakano will probably be opposed by Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, who will be term-limited out of the 55th Assembly District.

Nakano told us he is confident that he can win the Democratic nomination for the State Senate Seat because so much of the senate district includes his former 53rd Assembly District and Oropeza is not well known in this portion of the district.

Well, maybe, but frankly, Nakano was not that well known either when he ran the first time for the Assembly seat.

As we said, candidate filing opens in a matter of weeks and closes in less that two months.

Then the campaigning will begin.

GOVERNOR RACE CHATTER — Folks in the know are telling us that the Democratic primary for governor to see who can take on Arnold in the fall is going to be a real blood bath.

The two top Democrats in the governor’s race come loaded down with personal money.

Treasurer Phil Angelides made his money in real state and Controller Steve Westly got rich with e-Bay.

Some folks we talk with up and down the state say Arnold is a “shoo-in” to be re-elected, but local political commentator Sherry Bebitch Jeffe had some interesting comments on KPCC’s Airtalk program with Larry Mantle that was really an eye-opener.

Jeffe pointed out that in an open primary in Orange County for the congressional seat of Christopher Cox, the American Independence Party candidate Jim Gilchrist pulled in 25 percent of the vote.

If Gilchrist runs for governor on the American Independence Party, he might pull away a substantial number of the right-wing Republican votes from those Republicans who think Schwarzenegger is too liberal for the Republican Party.

Gilchrist is the founder of the Minuteman Project and whipped up lots of attention and got lots of votes on the immigration issue.

ANOTHER SIGN OF AGE — You know you’re getting old when the youngsters who work for you don’t have a clue about the idols of an earlier era.

When the former wife of actor Rock Hudson died in her Marina home, we thought it would be a great human interest story.

But when we asked one young reporter to do the story, we drew nothing but a blank. When we turned to our second young reporter, we got a similar blank response.

“Do either of you know who Rock Hudson was?” we asked, stunned that we would have to ask such a question.

Another blank from Reporter #1.

“Well, I think I heard of him once or twice,” came the second response.”

We shouldn’t feel too bad. Reporter #2, who finally agreed to do the story, was only four years old when Hudson died.

But of course we can’t identify any of the current idols either — especially the rappers and rockers.

We recall in the early 1990s visiting our then-80-something aunt.

She was a woman of the world — a classical pianist, an artist, a world traveler and a botanist. She spoke several languages and she was studying Arabic.

There on her living room table was People magazine, next to a copy of Paris Match.

She subscribed to both.

Why in the world would you read People and the gossipy Paris Match, we asked her.

“It’s the only way I can keep up with who’s trendy these days,” she replied.